By Daniel Johnson, Staff Writer

Published in print on Jan.21, 2015

Women’s Basketball

UNCG vs Mercer

Last week, the women’s basketball team had two games against two Southern Conference rivals.

Their first game, last Monday, UNCG hosted the Mercer Bears.

In the match, the highly contested battle went down to the wire, but unfortunately did not go the way of the Blue and Gold as the home team fell 74-73 in defeat.

Despite holding Mercer to zero three pointers, as well as having a slightly higher shooting percentage, (39.7 to 39.1 percent) the key reason the Bears took the game was due to the nine-point advantage they had at the free throw line.

Two of those made free throws came in the final seconds to give the team a one-point lead with only six seconds left.

Guard Lucy Mason attempted a final shot to win the game, but it rimmed out to give the Bears the road victory.

Both teams ended with four different players with double digit scoring games, with Precious Bridges and Teanna Robinson of Mercer leading the match with a respected 20 and 18 points.

Jade Scaife led the Spartans with 17 points.

UNCG vs East Tennesee State

Their second match saw the team travel to Johnson City, TN to face East Tennessee State University.

Going into halftime, the Spartans had an eight-point lead despite having both a lower shooting percentage and fewer free throws attempts and makes than the Pirates.

Coming out the locker room after halftime, the Pirates must have chugged gallons of “Secret Stuff” from Space Jam as the Pirates elevated their shooting percentage to an absurd 75 percent from the field!

The Spartans were unable to match-up to the video game type numbers put up by East Tennessee State and were outscored by 30 points in the 2nd half.

Wendy Palmer’s squad lost the game 87-65.

ESTU guard, Shamauria Bridges scored 17 of her game high 23 points in the 2nd half.

Spartan players Lucy Mason and Jarae Savage ended the game with double-doubles (Mason with 20 points and 10 rebounds and Savage with 16 points and 11 rebounds).

UNCG Track & Field

The UNCG women’s track team opened their indoor track season at Chapel Hill in the Art and Linda Maillet Open last weekend.

On the 800 meter run, redshirt sophomore Katy Link led the Spartan team with a sixth place finish.

Link’s 2:21.33 finish was the best finish of her career.

Beside the performance of Katy Link, the rest of the track team did not compete very well against other schools.

The only other relevant performance would be that of junior Eira Jensen who finished the same run with a ninth place finish at a time of 2:27.33.

By the end of last week, the Women’s Basketball team has a 5-13 record, extended their losing streak to six games, and has lost all three of their matches against opponents in the SoCon.

The team only has a half a game lead over Wofford to keep them out the SoCon cellar at last place.

This weekend sees the team travel to Cullowhee, NC to face Western Carolina, another team without a SoCon win.

For the Spartan’s Track and Field team, Sunday sees them traveling to Winston-Salem, NC to compete in the “UNCG Spartan Team Challenge.”

The UNCG Track and Field team are holding walk on tryouts next week, beginning on January 21.

Categories: daniel johnson, Sports